Alexandria lights up its Christmas Village

SIOUX FALLS S.D. (KELO) — The City of Alexandria is lighting up its Christmas displays but doing it with a unique twist this year.

Alexandria’s Christmas Village involves homes putting up decorations over the whole town with each street having a different theme.

Becky Cheeseman, a resident of Alexandria, said she got the idea from a small community in Kansas and sought to bring it to Alexandria.

“We always enjoy driving up and down the streets viewing the signs and all the light displays. I do have a bit of a creative bone and decided that this would be something unique, and worth bring to the Alexandria Community,” Cheeseman said.

Cheeseman said it takes a village to pull off a project like this.

“I knew that in order for this to be successful, I was going to have to recruit help.  People thought I was crazy when I started reaching out to folks already in August.  My goal was to get everything lined up and coordinated before November 1st so that everyone could put Christmas aside long enough to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday season. “

Cheeseman said the event started last year with only 40 to 46 homes on one street.

“Last year was technically our first year with it where we rolled out one street which was Candy Cane Lane,” Cheeseman said. “So it was a matter of delivering communications between everybody on the street and let them know, hey we are gunna try this and we would like you to participate.”

Cheeseman said this year the whole town is involved.

“This year everybody in the community already knew that we were going to roll it out to the whole community this year, so what I did this year was reach out to individuals on each street and ask for volunteers to represent their street.

Cheeseman said the town really came together to put this on.

“I may have come up with the idea, but all the credit goes to the entire Alexandria community,” Cheeseman said. “Its just crazy how it all came together, I think it has something to do with small town pride, everybody just knew this was something we can participate in.”

Cheeseman said this is something no other community in the area has done.

“It has been a huge undertaking that has required the help of many and a lot of man hours.  I have said many times, the first year is the hardest as it requires the most prep work.  Going forward, it will be much easier.  It will be fun to watch this event continue to grow year-after-year.  We look forward to spreading Joy and Christmas Cheer with onlookers from near and far.”

A full map of the Christmas Village can be found below as well as the themes for each street.

• The North Pole (Santa Claus) – 9th St
• Candy Cane Lane – 8th St
• Snowman Street – 7th St
• Lane of Lights – 6th St
• Present Valley – 5th St
• Whoville – 3rd & 4th St
• Elf Avenue – 2nd St
• Stocking Street – Broad St
• Christmas Tree Trail – Oak & Pine St
• The North Star – Hanson Lake
• Snowflakes – sprinkled throughout

You can keep up to date with the Christmas Village on its Facebook page.

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